Jjaro
The Jjaro 'were an extremely advanced species--or an extremely advanced individual--which vanished from the Milky Way galaxy millions of years before the battle of Tau Ceti, leaving much of their technology to fall into the hands of the Pfhor. The Jjaro possessed high-quality cyborg technology, such as that used to create the S'pht, as well as a star-destroying weapon known as the trih xeem, the ability to move entire planets by warping space around them as was used by the S'pht'Kr, some sort of time manipulation technology, and various ways of dealing with the W'rkncacnter. Only two individuals (possibly), Yrro and Pthia, are ever named. According to Durandal, the Nakh were the last extant client race of the Jjaro. They rebelled against the Pfhor 6,000 years before the end of [http://marathongame.wikia.com/wiki/Marathon_2 ''Marathon 2]. '''History Sixty-four million years ago, a large extra-terrestrial object struck the Earth in what would later be called the Yucatan Peninsula, in south eastern Mexico. The dust and rock thrown up by the resulting explosion caused enormous climactic changes in the ensuing years, and many of the Earth's species became extinct during the long winter that followed. I think that the W'rkncacnter and Jjaro are both the "first races". I think they represent order and chaos (guess which is which). They were created together in the beginning, and are in constant battle with each other, with the Jjaro trying to maintain the balance of everything; hence Thoth's mission, and the W’rkncacnter just trying to destroy it all, creates chaos, giving one side more power than another and so on until everything is dead. They are of equal power, since a Jjaro can trap "the" W'rknacanter (interesting this is, that word seems both plural and singular, hence "the" could mean the entire W'rkncacnter race, or just the specific being in mention), and the W'rkncacnter could kill Pthia (supposedly a Jjaro). The object itself was buried thousands of feet below ground, its nearly two kilometer length remarkably intact. It remained there, motionless, for thousands of years before it finally began to stir-- and to dream. It was a member of a race whose history began when the Milky Way was still a formless collection of dust and gas-- a powerful race of immortals which had quickly grown bored of their tiny universe and nearly exterminated themselves in war. This particular being, whose name no human throat will ever learn to pronounce, was part of the cataclysmic battle that formed Magellanic Clouds, billions of years ago. It died there, or it came as close to dying as these things can, and drifted aimlessly for millions of light years before striking the Earth. The heat of impact liquefied the rock around it, which later cooled and encased the dead god's huge body far below ground. As it began to dream, it wrought unintentional changes in its environment. Locked deep beneath the Earth, strange and unbelievable things faded in and out of reality. Vast caverns and landscapes bubbled to life within the rock, populated by horrible manifestations of the dead god's dream. Only during the last few centuries has the god begun to effect changes on the surface of the Earth. Grotesque creatures have been sighted deep in the trackless forest of the Yucatan, and strange rumors of an ancient pyramid-- which is neither Aztec nor Mayan-- in the same area have been circulating in the archaeological community since the early 1930's. The alien projection appeared in the early spring of 1994, flickering suddenly into existence deep within the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The hologram of the Jjaro diplomat interrupted, quite deliberately, an important briefing of the President by his senior military staff. It told them they had eight days to save the world. Though the god can never be killed, the projection of the Jjaro dignitary told us here on Earth that if we acted quickly we could prevent it from awakening. To do this, however, someone was going to have to carry a low-yield nuclear device down to the god's body and detonate it there. This would not only stun the dreaming god, but further bury it under millions of tons of rock. The Jjaro claim to have made an extensive survey of the Earth's technology, and maintain that this is the only way. More permanent measures will be taken by the aliens themselves (who are already on their way) when they arrive in two and a half Earth years Individuals Yrro is thought to be one of the Jjaro, although this is not known for certain. In an interview with Chris Geisel, it was stated that S'boath and S'bhuth are alternate spellings, just as Yrro is an alternate spelling of Jjaro,[1] leading to the belief that Yrro was actually the entirety of the Jjaro race, and that Pthia is another race altogether. Pthia is thought to be one of the Jjaro, although this is not known for certain. In an interview with Chris Geisel, it was stated that S'boath and S'bhuth are alternate spellings, just as Yrro is an alternate spelling of Jjaro, leading to the belief that Yrro was actually the entirety of the Jjaro race, in which case the Pthia would be another race. Technology Jjaro technology is incredibly advanced and they have made many discoveries about the secrets of the universe. One of their ships, the Manus Celer Dei, was able to survive the closure of the universe, they uplifted the S'pht, defeated the W'rkncacnter, had mastered time control, had a station capable of compressing the mass and energy of a supernova into a black hole millennia beyond reckoning after it was decommissioned and abandoned, and a few of their artefacts were able to create a cyborg who could also survive the closure of the universe and escape it all together. In an earlier accident, the Pfhor learned that the Jjaro had the ability to warp entire planets between solar systems, and it was this reference that started Durandal on his ridiculous journey to Lh'owon. 2.5 years later, the Jjaro could use their planet warping technology to beam out the alien god from a distance, so that the general public never learned of the incident. The US gov't decides to keep the whole thing secret. But I imagine this important information would be passed down from leader to leader through the years. Perhaps Durandal knew of the Jjaro before ever leaving Sol. Apparently someone forgot that the Jjaro were the ones who built the chips that give sentience to non-sentient beings. They could easily have written a program that would monitor Earth then create an appropriate hologram. The trih xeem (also "tri xeem") is an extremely powerful weapon that can be used to force a star into early nova. Used by the Pfhor as a last-resort weapon to quell slave revolts, it was originally conceived and built by the Jjaro. The Pfhor had previously been forced to use the trih xeem when the Nakh (the last extant client race of the Jjaro) rebelled six thousand years before the end of [http://marathongame.wikia.com/wiki/Marathon_2 Marathon 2], as well as a rebellion by the Drinniol. Much of the [http://marathongame.wikia.com/wiki/Marathon_Infinity Marathon Infinity] story revolves around preventing the Pfhor from using the tri xeem and inadvertently releasing a W'rkncacnter that is supposedly trapped within the Lh'owon sun. The Manus Celer Dei was the name given to a Jjaro dreadnought by the AI, Durandal. 10,000 years after the Pfhor attack on Tau Ceti, Durandal returned to Earth in this vessel, folding directly into a low-Earth orbit after putting the guard through its paces around Pluto. It has the capacity to survive the Big Crunch at the end of the universe. Thoth is an ancient AI, created by the Jjaro and given to the S'pht'Kr. He is an enigmatic, powerful being. Although he only ever speaks in strangely written, choppy free-verse poetry which is hard to decipher, he has very definite goals. He seems to care little for the wars between the S'pht, the Pfhor and the humans, serving only to keep the W'rkncacnter imprisoned. In one of the potential realities created by the waking of the W'rkncacnter in Marathon Infinity, he merges with Durandal, creating a strange hybrid. Thoth is obsessed with balance, as he has been known to help Robert Blake and his forces when they are losing the war and then switch sides to help the Pfhor when the tide had turned in the humans' favour in the events of Marathon Infinity. Associate Races The S'pht (pronounced "S'fit") are a race of alien cyborgs, cybernetically enhanced by the Jjaro to terraform Lh'owon. They were enslaved by the Pfhor around 1800 A.D., and liberated en masse by Durandal and the un-enslaved and technologically superior S'pht'Kr clan in 2811 A.D. The S'pht consist of extremely complex brains carried in floating cybernetic bodies, and at least the Pfhor-enslaved S'pht wear long flowing cloaks and are armed with a built-in energy pulse weapon. Some S'pht carry cloaking devices. Pfhor studies of the S'pht anatomy reveals that they are genetically related to the F'lickta. After interaction with non-cybernetic species, some S'pht have mused that the first of their kind may have actually been the result of the Jjaro grafting cybernetic implants onto the F'lickta. Only I grasped the significance of the dissection of some of the captives. These creatures, repugnant as they are, are sentient, and yet their bodies are not bonded to any mechanisms. They can survive without their armor and their staffs. Until now, sentience had always required cyber-organic symbiosis. All of our science has led to this conclusion. We can even give our pets sentience with cyber-organic implants. Yet, these vile conquerors are sentient without any machinations. This leads to debate. Perhaps our own sentience is induced by the birthing operation, and that at some time, we were no more sentient than a F'lickta. In writing, the S'pht language differs from Earth languages in that it seems to use apostrophes instead of spaces between words. In addition, some words are missing entirely from the short phrases that Durandal mentions to you, and some words are in the wrong order. "Narhl'Lar," for example, means "Freedom and Vengeance," and "K'liah'Narhl" is translated into "Vengeance of K'liah." As "Narhl" is the only shared word, it obviously means "Vengeance," and therefore "Lar" means "Freedom," and "K'liah" is a proper noun that is not translated. "Of" and "and" are both missing entirely from the S'pht translation, and in both instances the remaining words are switched around. After Pthia's death, Yrro scattered the S'pht across Lh'owon, separated into eleven clans. Each clan is led by an Older, and it seems as if the entire planet has one Master who may call the Olders to meeting: *· S'pht'Lhar *· S'pht'Hra *· S'pht'Nma *· S'pht'Kah *· S'pht'Vir *· S'pht'Yra *· S'pht'Val *· S'pht'Shr *· S'pht'Mnr *· S'pht'Yor *· S'pht'Kr Each clan is led by an Older, and it seems as if the entire planet has one Master who may call the Olders to meeting. Types Throughout the series, several different kinds of S'pht and related enemies are encountered: The S'pht Compilers are the most common kind of S'pht found in the Marathon Universe and are the first encountered, appearing in the opening level of Marathon, "Arrival". Like the Pfhor, the Compilers come in ranks. The Compiler has two ranks: the Minor, which wears an orange cloak, and the superior Major Compiler, which wears a purple cloak. The Compilers attack by shooting a bolt of energy out of the machinery they have hidden under their cloaks. The bolt is powerful, but slow, so the player can move out of its way given sufficient distance to react. When the Compiler is struck by an attack, any impending attack is interrupted. Some Compilers also use a cloaking device which make them harder to spot. While most of the time the Compilers are enemies to you, in some levels they are allies rebelling against the Pfhor. The Compilers wear a long robe like cloak that covers internal machinery. Their heads are somewhat dome shaped. In Marathon they have a long cord or tail coming out of the back of their heads, but in Marathon 2: Durandal the tail is gone. Note that Compilers have two small green lines on their heads in Marathon Infinity, possibly from the glow. The Cyborg '''is an enemy encountered throughout Marathon 2: Durandal and Marathon Infinity. The Cyborg appears to be a combination of organic and machine parts. The upper half is somewhat humanoid in appearance, with cybernetic enhancements on the arms, including a grenade launcher. The bottom half resembles a tank with triangular formed treads and a red or green strip of light on back of the tread section. When destroyed, it is revealed that the two halves appear to have been connected by a series of pipes. In combat, the Cyborg uses its wrist-mounted grenade launcher to attack, launching slow-moving bouncing grenades, which are relatively easy to dodge. The more advanced versions of the cyborg attack with a wrist-mounted flamethrower when within close range, and the grenades of these advanced cyborgs (which bear green markings instead of red) are heat-seeking. The assault rifle takes many rounds to destroy one of these, but the Cyborg will typically be unable to return fire while being repeatedly shot. The Zeus Class Fusion Pistol also seems to affect them more than many other weapons, as it tends to do with machinery in general. Be aware, however, that Cyborgs explode when destroyed, causing damage to anything nearby. The '''F'lickta (sometimes colloquially referred to as "Yetis") are native creatures of Lh'owon, living in sewers, water pools, and lava. They often harass Pfhor forces, and are extremely irritable. F'lickta attack using a favoured claw, but are fully capable of biting with their teeth. Entering their home turf unarmed is not recommended. Despite the two species' wildly different appearances, the F'lickta share common ancestry with the S'pht. They have a simplified digestive system, absorbing nutrients from the sludge they live in. The coloration and properties of the known F'lickta sub-species vary depending on their surroundings. The more common Green F'lickta, who strike powerfully and throw damaging sludge, live in the sewers of Lh'owon. The hardy Blue F'lickta have powerful melee attacks, but no projectile attacks; they thrive in watery environments, but are still dangerous on land. Found near volcanic regions deep underground, Red F'lickta are not particularly strong, but can hurl deadly lava great distances. At the Pfhor Perimeter Garrison 7AF on Lh'owon, Science Officer 2nd Class St'ngr observed that F'lickta allow their eggs to develop in their large mouth-like orifices, which actually contain a womb instead of a digestive tract. St'ngr found young F'lickta impossible to locate for study because the parents would kill their offspring rather than have them face captivity. The''' S'pht'Kr''' were the once quasi-mythical eleventh and "lost" clan of the S'pht, discovered and freed by the efforts of both Durandal and Mjolnir Recon number 54 in Marathon 2. Though powerful, the S'pht'Kr are not much larger than the average human. Unlike the more common Compilers, the S'pht'Kr have a bulbous, glassy sphere and three short appendages; one curling up underneath them like a tail, and the other two coming down at their sides. Like their other S'pht cousins, the S'pht'Kr hover, as they have no appendages to walk with. Inside of the spherical "helmet" rests a very complex brain. It is unknown for certain if all S'pht'Kr appear as the ones seen in Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity. The schematic text (seen to the right) indicates that the "S'pht'Kr Elite Guard" are a special cadre of S'pht'Kr. Category:Ancient Faction Category:Allied Faction Category:Marathon Category:Species Category:Ancient Species Category:Allied Species Category:Marathon species